Besøge | Danish Grammar

Besøge is the everyday verb for visiting — a person, a place, a museum, a website. It is transitive: you visit someone or something directly, with no preposition in between. It is a regular weak verb, so the forms hold no surprises. What you really need from this page is the pair of natural ways Danes say "visit": the verb besøge nogen and the equally common phrase komme på besøg ("come visiting"). Both are everyday; choosing between them is mostly a matter of rhythm.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) besøge	to visit
Present	besøger	visit(s)
Past	besøgte	visited
Past participle	besøgt	visited
Imperative	besøg!	visit!

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No agreement, ever. The present is besøger for every subject — jeg besøger, du besøger, hun besøger, vi besøger, de besøger — and the past is besøgte throughout. Danish verbs never change for person or number, so there is a single form per tense.

Besøge is a weak verb of the -te / -t class. The stem is besøg- (note the ø, not o); add -te for the past and -t for the participle. The -g- is written but barely pronounced — Danish softens it almost to a j-glide, so besøger sounds close to "be-SØ-er."

Present: besøger

The present besøger is transitive — the person or place visited is the direct object, with no linking word.

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	besøger	jeg besøger min mormor
du	besøger	du besøger os tit
han / hun	besøger	hun besøger en veninde
vi	besøger	vi besøger museet
de	besøger	de besøger København

Jeg besøger min mormor hver søndag.

I visit my grandma every Sunday.

Når I er i byen, skal I besøge det nye kunstmuseum.

When you're in town, you have to visit the new art museum.

Past: besøgte

Vi besøgte Tivoli og spiste is i solen.

We visited Tivoli and ate ice cream in the sun.

Hun besøgte sin bror i Aarhus i sidste uge.

She visited her brother in Aarhus last week.

Present perfect: har besøgt

The perfect uses har plus the participle besøgt. Visiting is an action you perform, not a change of your own state, so it always takes har, never er.

Har du nogensinde besøgt Grønland?

Have you ever visited Greenland?

Vi har ikke besøgt dem, siden de flyttede.

We haven't visited them since they moved.

The everyday alternative: komme på besøg

Just as common as the verb — often more common in casual speech — is the phrase komme på besøg, literally "come on visit." Where besøge is transitive ("visit someone"), komme på besøg is intransitive and pairs with hos to say at whose place: komme på besøg hos nogen.

Jeg kommer på besøg i morgen, hvis det passer dig.

I'll come visit tomorrow, if that suits you.

Vil I ikke komme på besøg hos os i julen?

Won't you come and visit us at Christmas?

The two are interchangeable in most everyday situations:

Jeg besøger min mormor = Jeg kommer på besøg hos min mormor.

I'm visiting my grandma = I'm coming to visit my grandma.

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Both are fully everyday — pick whichever fits the rhythm of your sentence. Use besøge + object when the visited person/place is the natural focus (besøg mig snart!). Use komme på besøg (hos) when "coming over" is the focus, especially for invitations (kom på besøg! = "come over!"). Note the preposition switch: besøge takes a bare object, while komme på besøg needs hos before a person.

The noun: et besøg

The related noun is et besøg, "a visit" (neuter — et, not en). It feeds the phrase above and several others.

Tak for besøget — det var hyggeligt at se jer.

Thanks for the visit — it was lovely to see you.

Vi får besøg af min svigermor i weekenden.

We're getting a visit from my mother-in-law this weekend.

That last pattern — få besøg af nogen ("get a visit from someone") — is the natural way to say you are being visited, from the host's point of view.

Besøge vs gæste — the register note

There is a third, fancier verb you will meet in writing: gæste ("to be a guest of / to grace with one's presence"), from gæst ("guest"). It is (formal / literary) and turns up mostly in journalism and announcements — a famous artist gæster a city; you do not normally gæste your grandmother.

Den verdenskendte pianist gæster København til efteråret.

The world-famous pianist will visit Copenhagen this autumn. (formal/press)

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For real life, stick with besøge or komme på besøg. Reserve gæste for written, formal contexts — a performer visiting a venue, a head of state visiting a country. Using gæste about everyday family visits sounds comically grand.

Common collocations

besøge nogen / noget — to visit someone / something (transitive, no preposition)
komme på besøg (hos nogen) — to come and visit (someone)
få besøg (af nogen) — to get a visit (from someone)
et besøg — a visit (neuter noun)
et lægebesøg / et hospitalsbesøg — a doctor's / hospital visit
besøgstid — visiting hours

Hvad er besøgstiden på hospitalet?

What are the visiting hours at the hospital?

A natural exchange

— Kommer du på besøg i weekenden? — Ja, jeg besøger jer lørdag. Vi får også besøg af min søster — er det okay? — Selvfølgelig! Jo flere, jo bedre.

— Are you coming to visit this weekend? — Yes, I'm visiting you on Saturday. We're also getting a visit from my sister — is that okay? — Of course! The more, the merrier.

All three patterns appear there: komme på besøg (the invitation), besøge jer (the transitive verb), and få besøg af (from the host's angle). For the family-words you will reach for when talking about visits, see Family relationships.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg besøger til min mormor.

Incorrect — besøge is transitive and takes a bare object: no til, no preposition.

✅ Jeg besøger min mormor.

I'm visiting my grandma.

❌ Jeg kommer på besøg min mormor.

Incorrect — komme på besøg needs hos before a person.

✅ Jeg kommer på besøg hos min mormor.

I'm coming to visit my grandma.

❌ Vi har besøgte dem flere gange.

Wrong form — the perfect uses the participle besøgt, not the past besøgte.

✅ Vi har besøgt dem flere gange.

We've visited them several times.

❌ Jeg gæster min mormor på søndag.

Wrong register — gæste is formal/literary; for family, use besøge.

✅ Jeg besøger min mormor på søndag.

I'm visiting my grandma on Sunday.

❌ Vi får et besøg af min søster.

Slightly off — the fixed phrase is få besøg af, with no article on besøg.

✅ Vi får besøg af min søster.

We're getting a visit from my sister.

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